Preflight Briefing

The Aviation Project requires the students to discover and understand what
an aviation academy looks like. It is up to the students to decide what high
school subject areas and courses need to be offered to cover the key aspects
of the aviation field. There are six subject areas involved in helping students
find their way through the project: CAD, careers, English, history, math,
and science. There are four components to the project: the research, the printed
document, the multimedia presentation, and the board presentation. Each discipline
covers a piece of each component. The teacher in each subject area guides
the students to think about a discipline and how it relates to aviation.

Six classes of students are invited to a formal setting by invitation only.
Ideally, the students in these six classes share the six core teachers of
this project, but that arrangement is not necessary for the project to succeed.
(For example, one student out of the six classes is enrolled in only one class
involved in the project, while another student is enrolled intwo or more of
the project classes). At the presentation, the students are asked to think
about the question "What does an Aviation Academy look like?" Speakers from
the school district explain the school communities' desire for this academy
and how the students can help the school board make its final decision regarding
the validity of such an academy. The speaker also shares a recent related
newspaper article with the assembly of students.

Dreams of Flight:

Summary of message from school board: The high school has the opportunity
to create and implement an aviation academy that will be a curricular path
for students to explore opportunities in the field of aviation. The board
will approve funding of the aviation curricular path if the school community
-staff, students, and parents- can convince them that all disciplines will
be included in the academy; that the academy will offer a rigorous curriculum
that meets the University of California A-F requirements; and that they will
be able to create enough interest in the academy that enrollment will be filled
by students who are excited to choose this path.

Flight Plan

Six classes of students are invited to a formal meeting by invitation only
to discuss the question "What does an aviation academy look like? Speakers
from the district explain the communities' request for this academy and how
the students can help. A spokesman for the teacher team concludes by giving
an overview of how each component is accomplished through each class. Next,
the students review the district proposal and prepare for liftoff of the project.
Students discuss how to approach the investigation. The class agrees that
math seems a logical fit with aviation. They also suggest inviting a pilot
to the class to share his/her experiences and duties, especially those related
to math. They also determine that email will be the most efficient and quickest
way to communicate with pilots who might be willing to come to the classroom
to speak. A group of students volunteer to locate the email addresses of potential
speakers. Another group of students create an invitation that they will email.
Knowing that some time may pass before the speaker is able to visit the classroom,
a student suggests that they send out the basic information of their investigation
to other professionals in the field of aviation. They decide to contact the
instructor of the aviation technical program at the local community college
and the aviation mechanics division at a commercial airline in a nearby city.
The students create a list of questions that they ask the professionals to
respond to via email. The questions they brainstorm center around the focus
question about math in aviation. Once they have set up these communications,
the teacher re-introduces the aviation question to her class--"What does
an aviation academy look like?" Students break into groups of no more
than four to develop questions that are crucial to this investigation. Each
group determines individual roles in the group and come up with the grid shown
below.

Flight Team #

Team Name:

Pilot (Spokesperson)

Co-pilot (PowerPoint-graphics facilitator)

Navigator (Internet Searches & Copyright)

Steward/Stewardess (Publisher-brochure)

Aviation Questions:

Students who have any of the listed skills print their name on one sheet
under one category they feel qualified.

Students who do not sign up, but have a desire to learn that skill sign
up on one sheet under one category of interest.

Students who do not sign up pick the group they would like to work with
and sign their name in one of the categories that most fits their skill or
interest.

The next several minutes, the student groups brainstorm questions related to
math in aviation and record them using Inspiration software. The last part of
the class is spent sharing those questions with other groups. Just before the
end of class, the teacher directs students to their first assignment on the
Student Flight Plan webpage: research.

The students agree that each student may receive a one hour training workshop
related to his position. The training is offered after school on a designated
day. Notification of the date is sent by email to an account set up by a few
students in the class. After being trained, each team member has the responsibility
to share that information with the team. The students also discuss and agree
that any team member who does not do his part may be selected off the team by
the other team members by filling out the Rejection Form on the Student Flight
Plan webpage and by teacher approval.

Flight

As students work through the process, they design a timeline based upon what
they determine to be the questions that need to be answered and the projected
length of time for the development of the final task. The class also designs
rubrics to critique each component that they will be creating. Students have
opportunities to edit their work for final approval and possible selection for
district review.

The students agree to keep a student designed flight log with essential information
needed to complete their projects. A few students who have designed web pages,
decide that they will keep a log on a simple web page that the class can refer
to when needed. Those same students also agree to set up generic email accounts.
Taking into consideration that some of the students working on the aviation
project in another class will already have an account set up in that class,
they agree to coordinate with the other classes involved in the project so that
each student will have only one account for the project.

Take/Off (Class Introduction after District Introduction):

The teacher plans an activity for the students for the day that the pilot
agrees to speak to the class.

Students revisit what they learn at the district meeting. They are asked to
imagine if they are business people going to an important aviation meeting,
what items would they need to be successful at that meeting. Students keep a
journal or a flight log with all vital information they collect on the way.
They design a geometric flight ticket for entrance into this project. Students
come the following day prepared to take a flight to Chicago for such a meeting
with flight ticket and notebook in hand.

Students are met at the door by a flight attendant who takes their tickets
and directs them to their seat. Any student forgetting his ticket is asked to
sit in cargo in the back of the room on the floor.

At the bell, the flight attendant goes over flight procedures (emergency exits,
airbags, safety procedures, etc.). Students are asked to buckle their seat belts
(paper ones will be attached to each seat) and put their chairs in an upright
position. All luggage or notebooks must be placed under the seat for safe keeping.
A short film of the plane is shown to demonstrate take off. After the plane
is in the air, the flight attendant announces that students may take off their
seat belts and wait for refreshments. She then hands out small bags of peanuts.

After refreshment time, the flight attendant introduces the visiting pilot
to the class. The pilot, dressed in uniform, introduces himself to the class
and proceeds to share information about aviation and his job as related to math.
When the pilot finishes, the students ask questions.

The flight attendant directs students to fasten their seat belts and prepare
for landing. A short film is shown of the landing. The flight attendant thanks
the students for coming and turns the time over to the teacher for some final
departure instructions.The students go the Student Flight Plan webpage for more
information.

The teacher returns the students' flight tickets which they add to their log.
Students begin the rest of their investigation of the question.

Flight

Students follow the Student Flight Plan as directed on the Aviation Webpage.
Students do their own research, written documents, and multimedia presentations
outside of class. They present their findings, written documents, and multimedia
presentations to the class for review using the rubrics that they have created.
The teacher monitors, gives feedback, and evaluates each component at each stage.
Students take the opportunity to refine their work before final evaluation from
the teacher and selection of one written document and one multimedia presentation
for the district presentation. The teacher continues his/her math curriculum
by incorporating the student discovered aviation math concepts. The students
learn about lift, wing span, elevations, vectors, and other aviation tools.
Students design and build paper planes, kites, airport structures, etc.to demonstrate
the math concepts they have discovered in their investigation.

For example, students learn about airplane terminology, share their findings
and build a paper airplane to demonstrate their understanding. The students
plan a contest for height, distance, and speed to encourage the students to
do their homework.

The students design badges and ask the teacher to award for each mini class
project (research, written document, multimedia presentation, plane construction,
etc.) they complete. If a student collects nine out of ten projects, she earns
her pilot's license.

Landing

After the math components of the project are completed the students send a
copy of the class selected written document to the aviation project English
class for those students to edit and add to the district booklet. They send
a class selected multimedia presentation to the CAD class for students to edit
and add to the district presentation. Using student created rubrics the groups
assess their individual research papers, final group components (written document
and multimedia presentation) in the classroom, and their district presentation
report. They submit the evaulations to the teacher.